Acceptable Flaws on High-Dollar Customs?

[Daniel Koster]

"custom made" to me means careful attention to details.

Plain and simple.

 

[A. G. Russell]

Not all knifemakers are craeted equal and not all knifemakers have the same skills.

There is not a Custom folding knife on the market made to the precision level of a Microtech, Speedtech, TiKnives or Chris Reeve Sebbie. If precision is your only (or most important) guideline for purchasing a custom, I think you will be better served by a shop that produces their knives with $500,000-$1,000,000 worth of equipment.

With that being said, a custom knife has the ability to be uniquely designed to suit the owner and truly be one of a kind. With 99% of the "hand" makers out there you may sacrifice some precision, but gain artistic value in spades. If that is an acceptable tradeoff, a custom is for you.

As far as ABS Mastersmiths go, Jerry Fisk, Harvey Dean, Mike Connor, Roger Massey, Jim Crowell, and Ron Newton can make a knife that is so clean a flaw cannot be detected by the average high-end collector.

However all Mastersmiths are not created equal. In a world with 80 or so Mastersmiths, the list above is truly quite small.
For JS Smiths, Fitch and Russ Andrews can come pretty close to the guys above for less dinero.

Custom knives are a tradeoff between beauty and precision.
The more you pay does not guarantee you either.

Les?

I was searching for information on TiNives and ran across this post. I thought it so profound that it needed to be brought to notice once again.

 

[STR]

In answer to the first post. If the knife does not belong to you or if you just see it in a case or in a picture it isn't something that can really be judged with all that much scrutiny.

Often times I get a knife in the mail that upon first inspection I think the blade being off center is kind of odd for such a high dollar knife but when you get to handle it you can see pretty quickly that its only off center because of the tension the owner of the knife keeps it at for the pivot action. In most cases when I tighten the pivot it centers the blade.

My point is that its not always a flaw and I'm not so sure it would be if the blade was off a little bit. Some locks (if its aframe lock or thick liner lock) are strong enough to really lean into the blade even with the pivot tight. I've seen this a lot with the Cuda Maxx but looking at the lock cut out relief for that massive slab of lock I can see why.


STR

 

[flava]

Wow, this thread comes back from far down ...
Some excelent points and a good reading, I'm glad it was brought back up.
It is true that the level of precision in high-end factory knives (CRK, Microtech, I'd add Rockstead) is hard to come by. Even though my experience is quite limited, I've found several makers that provide even better precision, fit and finish:

Framelocks: Tom Mayo and Kevin Wilkins. I own knives from both and the precision is clearly better than the Sebbie's.
Slip joint and other traditional folders: Ron Lake, Reese Bose and Don Hanson. I own a Lake, a Bose and handled a small Hanson recently, all as perfectly made as I can tell.
Stock removal fixed blades: Dietmar Kressler, Neil Blackwood, Jens Anso. Amazing fit and finish. I've heard good things about Loveless, Johnson and Lovett but don't have first hand experience there.
Forged fixed blades: Don Hanson and Lin Rhea, top notch fit and finish.

I'm sure there are other makers who make it in this "list".

 

[jdm61]

Yes......a thread that should be revived every once in a while. To me, the best f & f I have seen from an ABS smith are Harvey Dean's knives. I own a Dean, a Fisk, A Crowell, a Fitch and a number of others. It is close, but Harvey wins by a whiskerbut some of the newer guys are going to give him a run for his money if John White's MS dagger is any indication But if you are looking for mechanical perfection as opposed to art and innovation, then you should probably steer well clear of Bill Moran's knives . Some of them have an almost organic look and feel with softened edges that woud not pass muster in JS or MS judging today from what Mr. Moran and others have told me. Yet, I paid 7 times as much for my Moran as I did for the next most expensive knife from another maker, which happened to be my Fisk Sendero. And I am DELIGHTED with both of them

 

[rick melear]

Funny that A.G brought thid old thread up while sarching for info on TiNives. I have 3.25 stars and stripes auto with a damascus blade. I went and dug it out of tha knife case and it is indeed a near flawless knife in fit, finish and functiion.

 

[rosconey2]

i have a yuna hard 2 prototype-is it flawless-no

a few grind marks and some other very minor things-for the most part im as anal as they come and am the first to bitch and do it loud-but for some reason i have no problems with this knife-it has a human factor my flawless xm18 doesnt-i like the idea he doesnt use all cnc equipment he does it by hand-

but the blade is centered-lol

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

He's my good friend, so I've got to say something! At this last Badger Show in Wisconsin, Jerry Rados' Stag Bowie got Best in Show, or Best Fixed Blade, I forget which, but I was sitting with him when the Judge returned it to him. he said had been judging knives for a long time and he looked this knife over at great length and in fine detail.
It was absolutely PERFECT - in his words. He said there was no flaw on it anywhere.
A great degree of precision CAN be obtained without million dollar equipment. There are more makers than those already listed whose work is beyond reproach.